172 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



of the first pair, when a small bird flitted up from the 

 furze and perched for a few moments on the topmost 

 twig of a bush; another furze-wren, his dainty figure 

 silhouetted, black as jet, against the pale evening sky, 

 on the summit of his black and gold furze-bush! It 

 was a joyful moment, a discovery wholly unexpected, 

 as I had previously explored that part and found 

 nothing. It was in a spot where the furze grew in a 

 dense thicket, four to six or seven feet high, and cover- 

 ing three to four acres of ground. As a rule the bird 

 prefers a sparser growth with open spaces among the 

 bushes. 



My bird soon vanished and refused to come out again. 

 Something better followed; fifty yards further on a 

 second bird appeared and perched on a bush began to 

 sing, allowing me to approach to within twenty yards 

 of him. He too then dived down into the thicket and was 

 seen no more. I went home with that small song in me, 

 but did not attempt to describe it, as I wished first to 

 hear it again more freely and fully uttered. 



Next day I found no fewer than nine pairs, all living 

 and breeding near together, at that one point in the 

 vast dense thicket. Outside it was all empty and 

 barren; just there the little living gems sparkled in pro- 

 fusion. But how melancholy to think that any cunning 

 scoundrel hired by a private collector, or the keeper of 

 a bird-stuffer's shop who calls himself "Naturalist," 

 might appear any moment with an air-gun and extirpate 

 the whole colony in the course of a morning! 



I found that my best time to observe these birds was 



